Bitcoin remains rangebound despite further CLARITY Act talks. ProShares launches first money-market ETF which meets GENIUS requirements
Bitcoin remains rangebound, trading between $66,000 and $71,000 and seemingly in need of a catalyst to drive prices higher.
Similarly, major altcoins such as ethereum, XRP and solana are also consolidating and struggling for direction, writes Simon Peters, cryptoasset market analyst at eToro.
.One major catalyst in the near term could be the passing of the CLARITY Act. The White House last week convened another round of closed-door talks with executives from major US banks and crypto firms, with the aim of getting a deal finalised by 1st March.
The main sticking point still is offering yield on stablecoins. From the banks’ perspective, deposits potentially fleeing from conventional bank accounts to stablecoins that could offer higher yields than interest rates set by banks could cause liquidity issues and instability to the current financial system. However, crypto firms believe that not allowing yield on stablecoins kills innovation and competitiveness, and only protects traditional banks’ interests.
Outside of regulatory developments, more inflation data is due to be released from the US this week, namely the producer price index (PPI). More signs of inflation cooling could signal to the Fed to ease policy and in turn be positive for crypto asset prices.
BIGGEST MOVERS
$MORPHO was one of the biggest movers last week, up 18%, following an agreement between the Morpho Association and Apollo Global Management, a leading private credit asset manager with close to $1 trillion of assets under management, to support on-chain lending markets on Morpho’s protocol.
Under the agreement Apollo or or its affiliates may acquire $MORPHO tokens through a combination of open-market purchases, OTC transactions, and other contractual arrangements, subject to an overall ownership cap of 90 million MORPHO tokens over a 48-month period, the press release went on to say
Discover more here: https://www.etoro.com/discover/markets/cryptocurrencies/market-movers
EYE-CATCHING STORIES
ProShares launches first money-market ETF which meets GENIUS requirements
ProShares last week launched the first ‘stablecoin-ready’ ETF which meets GENIUS Act requirements.
The new ETF ProShares GENIUS Money Market ETF, which trades under the ticket IQMM, is designed in such a way to only hold short-term government treasuries maturing within 93 days, the same limit that the GENIUS Act sets for stablecoin issuers.
This effectively makes the new ETF an eligible investment for stablecoin reserves rather than issuers having to buy and hold the treasuries directly themselves.
IQMM saw over $17 billion in day-one trading volume, an all-time record for an ETF, although the excitement was short-lived after it was revealed that it was ProShares themselves that had moved funds into IQMM for their other ETFs cash holdings.
Nevertheless, with the stablecoin market around the $315 billion mark and forecast to grow into the trillions of dollars in the coming years, IQMM could well see record volumes and assets under management in the months and years to come.
